Lew-Bass Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 How do you go about this if say for example it is a custom-made amp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Foxen Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Calculate from components I'd guess. Wattage ratings are vague anyway. Is it valve? Throw up the power valve compliment and someone will give you a rough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stylon Pilson Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 [quote name='Lew-Bass' post='401708' date='Feb 6 2009, 03:26 AM']How do you go about this if say for example it is a custom-made amp?[/quote] I don't think it can really be easily done. You could use a plug-through electrical meter and then play your amp at maximum volume to determine how many watts it draws from the grid, but then the amp won't have 100% efficiency so your effective wattage will be much lower. I assume that you are trying to sell the amp and you are wondering what to put on the advert to portray how loud it is. One option would be to A/B your amp with some other common amps, find the one that seems to have about the same output, and then on your advert write "I don't know the wattage, but it's comparable to a blah blah blah." You should definitely invite potential buyers to try it out first. S.P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YouMa Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 There should be a rating somewhere in its guts,open it up and examine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexclaber Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Simplest vaguely accurate way would be to plug it into a suitable cab, run a sine wave through it at about 200Hz and put a volt meter across the outputs. Find the highest voltage you can get whilst the sine wave still sounds clean to you. Then Power=Volts squared divided by resistance (4 or 8 ohm depending on the cab). This should be accurate enough to be useful. Note that matching power output of amps with power handling of cabs is a very inexact science. A 2:1 ratio in either direction is pretty well optimised but I wouldn't worry too much about going as far as 10:1 in either direction. Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrcrow Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 check the rating of any electrical components i dont know how to do it with meters but i am sure it can be measured by the gain ratio an amp will put out a multiple of what is fed into it and reaches its max usable is when it starts to clip at around 1% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bremen Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 [quote name='mrcrow' post='404252' date='Feb 9 2009, 01:10 PM']check the rating of any electrical components i dont know how to do it with meters but i am sure it can be measured by the gain ratio an amp will put out a multiple of what is fed into it and reaches its max usable is when it starts to clip at around 1%[/quote] Have you been reading 'Electronics For Dogs'? +1 for Alex's answer (as is generally the case ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrcrow Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 (edited) [quote name='bremen' post='404256' date='Feb 9 2009, 01:13 PM']Have you been reading 'Electronics For Dogs'? +1 for Alex's answer (as is generally the case )[/quote] no for crows CAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! sorry for the stupid observations... Edited February 9, 2009 by mrcrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bremen Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 [quote name='mrcrow' post='404425' date='Feb 9 2009, 04:08 PM'] no for crows CAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! sorry for the stupid observations... [/quote] sorry, didn't mean to be rude, your post was just a bit confusing and your avatar brought a certain book to mind! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 How do you find out the wattage of an amp? For most of them, read the manual and subtract 20% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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